Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of obligation for the Sunday after Ascension Thursday? Novus Ordo – 7th Sunday of Easter… OR… Ascension Thursday Sunday. Not confusing at all.
Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.
Some context helps. Shavuoth is a spring harvest festival. Like all Jewish feasts, and our own Christian feasts, they simultaneously look backward to commemorate some great event in salvation history, and they look forward to its eventual fulfillment by God. In this case, for Pentecost in the 1st century they would have celebrated how Moses and the twelve tribes arrived at Mount Sinai after Passover after passing though the waters (Exodus 19). Three days after their arrival the fiery cloud of glory descended, and God was with Moses.
In the Upper Room the Apostles, by Christ’s intention twelve, looking back to the twelve tribes, reflect on Jesus as the new Moses, ascending to the presence of God and awaiting the descent of a fire cloud of glory. Jesus had commanded them to stay in Jerusalem and wait to be clothed in power. What did that mean, clothed in power? Like Moses on the Mount? Jesus had told them at the Last Supper, “John baptized with water, you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit.”
Today’s prayer – for Sunday with Ascension – because that’s what it is – survived the Consilium’s scissor and gluepot ministrations to live in the 2002 Missale Romanum as the alternative Collect for Mass on the day of Ascension. Rather, the Collect rose to new life in the 2002 edition. It wasn’t in the 1970MR or 1975MR.
We can spin this positively: someone considered Ascension Thursday Sunday important enough to merit special attention. In a sense, it was brought into greater continuity with the pre-Conciliar Missale Romanum (of John XXIII).
Today’s Collect is ancient, and is found in the Liber sacramentorum Gellonensis.
Concede, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus: ut, qui hodierna die Unigenitum tuum Redemptorem nostrum ad caelos ascendisse credimus; ipsi quoque mente in caelestibus habitemus.
Our hard working Lewis & Short Dictionary can have a little rest today, I think. There is nothing especially noteworthy in the vocabulary. Let us therefore move on to a straight-forward…
LITERAL RENDERING:
Grant, we beseech You, Almighty God, that we, who believe Your Only Begotten Son our Redeemer to have ascended on this day to heaven, may ourselves also dwell in mind amongst heavenly things.
Bl. Abbot Columba Marmion, OSB (+1923), wrote in Christ in His Mysteries that “of all the feasts of Our Lord … the Ascension is the greatest, because it is the supreme glorification of Christ Jesus.”
Then, speaking about the very Collect we are looking at today, Bl. Columba says,
“This prayer first of all testifies to our faith in the mystery in recalling the title ‘Only-begotten Son’ and ‘Redeemer’, given to Jesus, the Church shows forth the reasons for the celestial exaltation of her Bridegroom;—she finally denotes the grace therein contained for our souls. … The mystery of Jesus Christ’s Ascension is represented to us in a manner suitable to our nature: we contemplate the Sacred Humanity rising from the earth and ascending visibly towards the heavens.”
It is not only Christ’s humanity but our humanity that ascended into heaven.
Preaching on 1 June 444 St. Pope Leo I “the Great” said,
“Truly it was a great and indescribable source of rejoicing when, in the sight of the heavenly multitudes, the nature of our human race ascended over the dignity of all heavenly creatures, to pass the angelic orders and to be raised beyond the heights of archangels. In its ascension it did not stop at any other height until this same nature was received at the seat of the eternal Father, to be associated on the throne of the glory of that One to whose nature it was joined in the Son.”
Leo says in another sermon of 17 May 445:
“This Faith, reinforced by the Ascension of the Lord and strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit, has not been terrified by chains, by prison, by exile, by hunger, by fire, by the mangling of wild beasts, nor by sharp suffering from the cruelty of persecutors. Throughout the world, not only men but also women, not just immature boys but also tender virgins, have struggled on behalf of this Faith even to the shedding of their blood. This Faith has cast out demons, driven away sicknesses, and raised the dead.”
The knowledge that our humanity is now enjoying heaven can work wonders for us in the hour of need. Keep this in mind in time of trial.
We Catholics know that what was not assumed, was not redeemed (St. Gregory of Nazianzus).
Our humanity, body and soul, was taken by the Son into an unbreakable bond with His divinity. When Christ rose from the tomb, our humanity rose in Him. When He ascended to heaven, so also did we. In Christ our humanity now sits at the Father’s right hand. His presence there is our great promise and hope. It is already fulfilled, but not yet in its fullness. That hope informs our trials in this life.
When the Lord ascended to heaven He did not lose touch with us His people in this vale of tears.
Christ is not insensible to our sufferings.
St. Augustine in s. 341 talks about Christ’s presence in every word of Scripture as Word equal to the Father; or as the mediator in the flesh dwelling in our midst; or Christ as the Head and Body together as in a spousal relationship, Christ and His Church intimately bound.
Our faith in this unbreakable bond of Head and Body calls us to be clean and worthy of this saving intimacy.
I received some mail from the TMSM PO BOX. Included was a book by a longtime reader who is its author. It is full of clever things to exercise your mind… and patience.
A few of the puzzles are chess related. Here is one of them.
This is a different kind of puzzle. I am puzzled by the punch line (the intersection of the diagram, obviously) although the observation about Baptists is funny. Who can help me with this? Frankly, I couldn’t care less about Taylor Swift and wouldn’t know a song of hers if it bit me on the leg. But the notion that there is any connection between her and Aristotle… other than both being carbon-based lifeforms… I dunno.
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A somewhat more conventional puzzle… white to move and mate in 2.
Nice people! Great service!
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
In chessy news, I am sad to report that my guy Wesley So got bumped down into Division 2 of the chess.com Classic where he also had a rough day. I’m a bit surprised, given his opponents. Also strange was world #4 Nepo losing to world #282 Denis Lazavik and world #2 Fabi losing to Velimir Ivic #204, who also beat world #20 MVL. These are not over-the-board (OTB) games, but rather online. The players are supposed to have additional video cams behind them or viewing them to prevent outside help. The games are also broadcast on a delay.
50% off on premium memberships at chess.com right now. HERE
And speaking of broadcasts, I’m hoping against hope that one of the commentators tomorrow will not be Tania. When she isn’t just repeating what others say, she can offer some excellent comments. However, there are times when her voice quite simply etches multiple glass surfaces. I have to either keep the volume low or, when I am not multitasking keep my finger over the mute button when things get tense. That’s when the volume and pitch go way up. Every other word is pumped up. To be fair, along the lines of those last qualities, Danny and Danya get every bit as screechy as teenage girls when there are time rush blunders. Chess is hard.
Meanwhile, in Warsaw, OTB Rapid concluded with Round 9. The players go on to 18 rounds of Blitz. China’s Wei Yi (#10) is in the lead with 5 straight wins and undefeated Magnus is second, one point behind.
I miss Rome. In any event, thank you, O Lord, for this new day.
UPDATE:
I found an open source equalizer to add to my computer to scale down the upper-range. It doesn’t solve the problem but it helps.
I was a little surprised not to find an equalizer built into Windows. Strange.
In the street projecting from The Parish™ in Rome, there is a tiny chapel, associated with the aforementioned Parish but somehow through time acquired and controlled by the office of the Italian government now housed in the old Monte di Pietà (a sort of loan institution which countered the loan operations in the nearby Jewish quarter back in the day).
This chapel was dedicated to Maria Succurre Miseris… Mary, Help of the Wretched. At some point the beautiful painting of Mary was relocated to the Parish, where it is now, and a rather stingy image of the Pietà was unceremoniously put in its place.
Recently, an agreement was reached whereby the Parish would take care of the chapel. Hence, cleaning and sprucing and the placing of flowers. The flowers will surely attract the eyes of the many… many… people who pass on that busy walking route.
Photos from The World’s Best Sacristan.
Here is the painting that was in the chapel. It receives a great deal of attention from people. Many people light candles on a daily basis.
A prayer.
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Yesterday was day 2 in the chess.com Classic. This determines in what divisions players will compete. In a rather surprising turn, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana and my guy Wesley So were knocked down to Division 2 by lower rated players. Head-scratching results, frankly.
This puzzled left me puzzled until I puzzled it out. The solution involves a tactic. Black to move.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Today is the feast of St. Isaiah. Yes, that is Isaiah the Prophet. Many of you might not know that great figures of the Old Testament are considered saints by the Church, though they are not remembered at the altar for Mass.
Here is the entry about Isaiah from 9 May in the Martyrologium Romanum. Maybe one or more of you you can take a crack at it? It isn’t too difficult.
1. Commemoratio sancti Isaiae, prophetae, qui, in diebus Oziae, Iotham, Achaz et Ezechiae, regum Iudae, missus est ut populo infideli et peccatori Dominum fidelem et salvatorem revelaret, ad implementum promissionis David a Deo iuratae. Apud Iudaeos sub Manasse rege martyr occubuisse traditur.
There are quite a few interesting depictions of Isaiah and one of the most dramatic moments for the great prophet, the purification of his lips by a seraph with a burning hot coal.
Here is Marc Chagall’s rendering. Note the Cross in the background to the left.
Isaiah 6 we have the calling of the prophet. In 740 BC Isaiah had a vision of Heaven while he was in the Temple. He is terrified and says (v. 5):
“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
A seraph comes to him with a burning coal from the Temple altar and touches it to Isaiah’s mouth saying: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven” (v. 7). God then asks whom he can send as a prophet to his people and Isaiah responds: “Here I am! Send me”.
First, purification. Then, then commissioning.
During Holy Mass (Vetus Ordo) the priest reads the Gospel at the altar, because the reading is also a sacrifice. Before he reads, or the deacon sings, they says two prayers, one about purification and the other about the mission of reading:
Cleanse my heart and my lips, O almighty God, who didst cleanse the lips of the prophet Isaias with a burning coal, and vouchsafe, through Thy gracious mercy, so to purify me, that I may worthily announce Thy holy Gospel. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Give me Thy blessing, O Lord. The Lord be in my heart and on my lips, that I may worthily and in a becoming manner, proclaim His holy Gospel. Amen.
I still have that painting by Chagall in my mind’s eye, with a view of the Cross, therefore the Eucharistic Sacrifice, in the background, rather, in the future.
The altar of Sacrifice is the prime locus of the raising heavenward of the Word to the Father. Ancient Greek Fathers saw a connection between the coal of Isaiah and the Eucharist and the theme of “deification”, whereby by God’s work in us we become more like God in whose image and likeness we are made. This is what the Eucharist does when received in the state of grace. We convert normal food into what we are. The food of the Eucharist converts us more into what HE is. Appropriately, we celebrated today also the Feast of the Ascension, which reminds us that our human is seated at the right hand of the Father in an indestructible bond with the Son’s divinity. St. John Damascene wrote in An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 4.13. Earlier, St. John discourses on wood and fire and charcoal. Here he is expounded on reception of the Eucharist. Note that this includes a description of Communion on the hand. HOWEVER, it also describes touching it to the eyes, etc., which indicates not so much a literal description of how Communion was received but rather a spiritualized description:
Wherefore with all fear and a pure conscience and certain faith let us draw near and it will assuredly be to us as we believe, doubting nothing. Let us pay homage to it in all purity both of soul and body: for it is twofold. Let us draw near to it with an ardent desire, and with our hands held in the form of the cross let us receive the body of the Crucified One: and let us apply our eyes and lips and brows and partake of the divine coal, in order that the fire of the longing, that is in us, with the additional heat derived from the coal may utterly consume our sins and illumine our hearts, and that we may be inflamed and deified by the participation in the divine fire. Isaiah saw the coal. But coal is not plain wood but wood united with fire: in like manner also the bread of the communion is not plain bread but bread united with divinity. But a body which is united with divinity is not one nature, but has one nature belonging to the body and another belonging to the divinity that is united to it, so that the compound is not one nature but two.
This might be a good time to remind you, before Sunday, to …
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At the Rapid and Blitz in Warsaw, the lowest rated seed, Kirill Shevchenko (a Ukrainian playing under the Romanian flag) went 3 for three to lead the pack after day 1 with a score of 6/6. Magnus and Nodirbek follow with 4/6. It is, of course, still early days. At 33 years old, Magnus is the oldest player!
Meanwhile, it’s blacks move. Mate in 3.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
I am sorting mail these days, which piled up during my Roman Sojourn. One thing I am doing is looking for things to read for a new edition of News of the Church. I immediately noticed interesting news of from the wonderful Benedictine nuns of Gower Abbey in Missouri, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. So, stay tuned.
Meanwhile, they have two new music CDs (and downloads). One of them focuses on martyrs. Here are three tiny tastes. I like that they put the famous Ut queant laxis into the collection. I did a podcast about it back in 2007!
Let’s see if we can sell out all the discs and break the downloads.
You get their music. They get more income. They open more daughter houses. More room available for vocations and happy traditional nuns.
See how that works?
Also, lest I forget, the chess.com Classic is revving up. Several of the players are also playing in Warsaw. There were real fireworks yesterday, with some spectacular blunders (which I find consoling) and missed mates (which I do often when playing fast). The highly unlikeable Hans Niemann with what was probably a mouse-slip blundered his queen. He’s out. Play continues today. Several players have already made it to Division 1 because of past performances, including Magnus.
Because this is a chess.com event, chess.com is offering discounts on premium memberships (there are free memberships, too).
There are many images of the Lord’s Ascension to heaven through history, and rightly so. With the Annunciation, the Ascension is perhaps the greatest of all the Feasts of the Lord and for our own humanity. Imagine! Our humanity, taken into an indestructible bond with the Lord’s divinity at the Annunciation, with the Ascension is seated – RIGHT NOW – at the right hand of the Father.
Now HE. Later WE.
The Ascension is an article of the Creed and it behooves us to reflect on it.
The depictions of the Ascension I like the most are the medieval illustrations which show the Apostles, often with Mary, looking upward as a pair of lordly Feet at all that remains to be seen.
The Ascension of Christ, historiated initial ‘C’, Italy, 15C (State Library of Victoria, RARES 096 IL I)
Who better to turn to for some insight into this than Ratzinger?
From the site Ignatius Insight, providing an excerpt from “The Ascension: The Beginning of a New Nearness,” from Joseph Ratzinger’sImages of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts (Ignatius Press, 2006 – UK HERE). My emphases and comments:
You are surely familiar with all those precious, naïve images in which only the feet of Jesus are visible, sticking out of the cloud, at the heads of the apostles. The cloud, for its part, is a dark circle on the perimeter; on the inside, however, blazing light. It occurs to me that precisely in the apparent naïveté of this representation something very deep comes into view. All we see of Christ in the time of history are his feet and the cloud. His feet—what are they?
We are reminded, first of all, of a peculiar sentence from the Resurrection account in Matthew’s Gospel, where it is said that the women held onto the feet of the Risen Lord and worshipped him. As the Risen One, he towers over earthly proportions. We can still only touch his feet; and we touch them in adoration. Here we could reflect that we come as worshippers, following his trail, close to his footsteps. Praying, we go to him; praying, we touch him, even if in this world, so to speak, always only from below, only from afar, always only on the trail of his earthly steps. At the same time it becomes clear that we do not find the footprints of Christ when we look only below, when we measure only footprints and want to subsume faith in the obvious. The Lord is movement toward above, and only in moving ourselves, in looking up and ascending, do we recognize him.
When we read the Church Fathers something important is added. The correct ascent of man occurs precisely where he learns, in humbly turning toward his neighbor, to bow very deeply, down to his feet, down to the gesture of the washing of feet. It is precisely humility, which can bow low, that carries man upward. This is the dynamic of ascent that the feast of the Ascension wants to teach us.
In the readings for the Sunday after Ascension, what does Peter teach us? Charity covers a multitude of sins!
Let’s have a few more images of the Ascension of different styles, animi caussa!
From the Parisian Missal
With footprints on his blasting off pad.
And there is the more, “It’s a bird! It’s plane!” style.
Note the reactions…
Getting a helping hand. Christ is carrying a scroll. What could be written on it? It must mean something.
Here’s 15th c. Flemish version where we see Christ getting to the right hand of the Father. Nice!
We have lovely customs in our wonderful Roman Catholic Church, including special blessings on certain feast days, often tied to the changing of the seasons… in Rome, that is. It’s the Roman Church, after all.
Tomorrow, the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord – on THURSDAY – was and is decorated with the opportunity to bless beans.
In Rome at this time of year the “broad beans” are usually at their peak. Broad beans are best enjoyed simply with pecorino cheese and cold white wine. The combination of which is a material proof of God’s love.
The connection of this time of year in the Roman calendar with beans is ancient indeed. Remember: I am not talking here about a certain attention seeking, bomb-throwing, hopped-up would-be-theologian sociologist. I mean the vegetable. Although… the two often produce similar “after effects”.
During May in ancient Rome the master of the house would walk around the dwelling on the nights of the Lemuria (9,11, 13) waving beans to ward of evil spirits. On the Kalends of June (1 June) there was a pagan feast of the Sacrum Carnae Deae when beans and bacon were offered in sacrifice and consumed. In fact, the June Kalends were called Kalendae Fabariae. Latin faba is, of course, “bean”, and the Italian is still the same, “fave”.
The essentials don’t change much. For this feast the ancient Romans ate a mess of beans and bacon. Any excuse, right?
In his Fasti the poet Ovid writes of beany blessings:
Pinguia cur illis gustentur larda Kalendis Mixtaque cur calido sit faba farre, rogas? Prisca dea est, aliturque cibis quibus ante solebat, Nec petit adscitas luxuriosa dapes.
I enjoy Ovid… it just rolls and rolls out so effortlessly.
In any event, beans and bacon were as big back then as they are now. It’s amazing how consistent we are. You get much of the same effect with your fave and pecorino cheese (salty fat).
And don’t forget the awe inspiring fave in tegame.
The the ancient Roman cookbook complied in the 4th c. and attributed to Apicius (US HERE – UK HERE), there are various bean and pea recipes. A good one. HERE and HERE
Pisam Vitellianam sive fabam (Peas or Beans à la Vitellius)
Pisam coques lias. teres piper, ligusticum, gingiber, et super condimenta mittis vitella ovorum, quae dura coxeris, mellis uncias III, liquamen, vinum et acetum. haec omnia mittis in caccabum et condimenta quae trivisti. adiecto oleo ponis ut ferveat. condies pisam, lias, si aspera fuerit. melle mittis et inferes.
Peas or beans with yolks are made thus: cook the peas, smoothen them; crush pepper, lovage, ginger, and on the condiments put hard boiled yolks, ounces of honey, also liquamen, wine and vinegar; mix and place all in a sauce pan; the finely chopped condiments with oil added, put on the stove to be cooked; with this flavor the peas which must be smooth; and if they be too harsh in taste add honey and serve.
If you don’t have a lot of liquamen, use garum(or substitute colatura or even Vietnamese fish sauce, which is similar).
A Bean Blessing is not, alas, in the Rituale Romanum, but another blessing, for any sort of food, can be used.
Bring lots of beans, perhaps along with bacon, to Father and ask him to bless them.
Remember that the Rituale in force in 1962 says that blessings are to be done in Latin. Sorry…I’m not making that up.
I’ll give the Latin below. The intro is familiar. In the bean blessing I made plurals and used an adjective rather than genitive.
P: Our help is in the name of the Lord.
All: Who made heaven and earth.
P: The Lord be with you.
All: May He also be with you.
Let us pray.
Bene+dic, Domine creaturas istas fabales, ut sint remedium salutare generi humano: et praesta per invocationem tui sancti nominis; ut, quicumque ex eis sumpserint, corporis sanitatem et animae tutelam percipiant. Per Christum Dominum nostrum.
Lord, bless + this creature, [beans – “beany creatures”)], and let it be a healthful food for mankind. Grant that everyone who eats it with thanksgiving to your holy name may find it a help in body and in soul; through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
It is sprinkled with holy water.
There is a separate blessing for bacon (“lard”… ascension of the lard?):
P: Our help is in the name of the Lord. All: Who made heaven and earth. P: The Lord be with you. All: May He also be with you.
Let us pray.
Bene+dic, Domine, creaturam istam laridi, ut sit remedium salutare generi humano: et praesta per invocationem tui sancti nominis; ut, quicumque ex eo sumpserint, corporis sanitatem et animae tutelam percipiant. Per Christum Dominum nostrum.
Lord, bless + this creature, lard, and let it be a healthful food for mankind. Grant that everyone who eats it with thanksgiving to your holy name may find it a help in body and in soul; through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
It is sprinkled with holy water.
I hope you will all be “full of beans” for this Feast of the Ascension of the Lord!
The recently deceased Fr. Hunwicke – may he rest in peace – once had a fun post about Ascension Beans. HERE
He includes the blessing for grapes… “Benedic +, Domine, hos fructos novos vineae…”.
The Ritual has blessings for all sorts of food items, such as bread and pizza or cake, beer, cheese and butter, birds, eggs, lamb, oils, whatever other food (ad quodcumque comestibile).
In some places the Feast of the Ascension (which since the 4th century has fallen on a Thursday because before that it always would have been on a Thursday) has been transferred to next Sunday, thus making it “Ascension Thursday Sunday”. That’s just wrong.
The 3rd edition of the Missale Romanum of 2002 provided a Mass for the Vigil of Ascension, which wasn’t in previous editions of the Novus Ordo.
The prayers for the new Vigil of Ascension are not the same as those found in the pre-Conciliar Missale for the Vigil.
In case you don’t have the Latin texts, here are the antiphons for the Vigil. Ant. ad introitum:Regna terrae cantata Deo, psallite Domino, qui ascendit super caelum caeli; magnificentia et virtus eius in nubibus, alleluia. (Ps 67:33,35) Ant. ad communionem:Christus, unam pro peccatis offerens hostiam, in sempiterum sedet in dextera Dei, alleluia. (Cf. Heb 10:12)
COLLECT (2002MR): Deus, cuius Filus hodie in caelos,
Apostolis astantibus, ascendit,
concede nobis, quaesumus,
ut secundum eius promissionem
et ille nobiscum semper in terris
et nos cum eo in caelo vivere mereamur.
This was modified from a prayer in ancient sacramentaries such as the Liber Sacramentorum when it was used on Ascension Thursday having its Station Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica.
The eucological formulas (the collection of prayers), for the Ascension could be the oldest prayers we have in the Roman liturgy! They are found in what was once often called the Leonine Sacramentary, which survived in one 7th c. manuscript in Verona, thus making it what modern scholars call it: the Veronese Sacramentary.
You might not immediately recognize astantibus as being from asto or adsto, which that ascendant lexicon of Latin lemmata, the Lewis & Short Dictionary, says means, “to stand at or near a person or thing, to stand by” The L&S will also inform you that asto has the synonym adsisto.
If you have ever heard the phrase “to assist (adsisto) at Holy Mass” this is the concept: you are present and actively participating.
Also, during the Roman Canon, the priest describes the people as circumstantes, “standing around”. This doesn’t mean they there around the altar with their hands in the their pockets (though that happens in the Novus Ordo). Rather, they are there morally and spiritually “around” the altar, participating each according to their vocation and capacity. So, circumstantes is used to identify the baptized who are present.
The Apostles, who were adstantes, actively participating in the Lord’s Ascension before, during and after the actual moment of the Ascension, both listened to the Lord and watched the Lord. Similarly, at Holy Mass we actively participate before, during and after the consecration, both by listening to the Lord speak through the texts and watching what the Lord does in the liturgical action.
LITERAL VERSION: O God, whose Son today ascended
into the heavens as the Apostles were standing close by,
grant us, we beseech You,
that, according to His promise,
we may be worthy both that He lives with us on earth,
and that we live with Him in heaven.
NEW CORRECTED ICEL (2011): O God, whose Son today ascended to the heavens
as the Apostles looked on,
grant, we pray, that, in accordance with his promise,
we may be worthy for him to live with us always on earth,
and we with him in heaven.
When the Second Person took up our human nature into an indestructible bond with His divinity we were thereby destined to sit at God’s right hand, first in Christ and then on our own.
Christ makes us worthy, no one else. Christ alone. It’s all His.
Because it’s His, it’s ours.
Our Lord’s Ascension brought our humanity to the right hand of the Father in glory, a first-fruit and token of what awaits us.
The Collect for the Vetus Ordo is from the 5th Sunday after Easter.
Deus, a quo bona cuncta procédunt, largíre supplícibus tuis: ut cogitémus, te inspiránte, quæ recta sunt; et, te gubernánte, eadem faciámus.
O God, from Whom all good things come, grant to Your supplicants, we beseech You, as You inspire we may think what is right, as You guide, accomplish the same.
God loves us so much that He makes us cooperators in His action. He gives us good things to do. He then makes our hands strong enough to handle them, such as His works are also our works. As Augustine says, he crowns His own merits in us.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
In chessy news… the Superbet Rapid & Blitz starts in Poland today, 8-12 May. 9 rounds of rapid, followed by 18 rounds of blitz. Magnus and Gukesh are playing.
Please remember me when shopping online and use my affiliate links. US HERE – UK HERE WHY? This helps to pay for health insurance (massively hiked for this new year of surprises), utilities, groceries, etc.. At no extra cost, you provide help for which I am grateful.
Welcome registrant:
Chirchlady
Also, MT… you sent a donation via Zelle. Zelle doesn’t provide an email. Would you please drop me a line so I can send a thank you note?
UPDATE:
BTW… there is a chess.com tournament going on: Champions Chess Tour Chess.com Classic 2024. Big players are involved including my guy Wesley So. (YAY!) It’s Day 1 and it is the “play in” phase, for favorable placement in the next phase. They have coordinated their schedule with the Rapid and Blitz in Warsaw so that those players can also participate from afar (e.g., Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Nodirbek Abusattarov, Anish Giri). As I am watching, Wesley and Fabi drew – they share the lead.
Now that you are not in Rome and you are not going to cappuccino and a cornetto, what’s for breakfast?
I could have a cappuccino. I have a great machine. However, usually I have very strong black coffee. I’m back to mostly protein. Today, kielbasa and spicy kimchi. I’ve missed the kimchi.
HEY! vb*****@cox.net! My thank you note to you got kicked back. New email?
A a Rome Shot. It is still like a dream to see this.
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Nice people! Great service!
Meanwhile, white will soon find mate I hope. It’s there and the pattern has a name with. Go for it! White to move.
1. Qxg7+ Bxg7 2. Rxg7+ Rxg7 3. Nxf6+ Kh8 4. Rxf8+ Rg8 5. Rxg8# NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
I wonder if there is a place to get good kimchi in Rome. You would think that there would be, right?
In chessy news, lest you be in the dark, I read that Hikaru Nakamura has by now won in one year over $10K in the chess.com “Bullet Brawl”. In this format each play has only ONE MINUTE. Whew. I dunno.
Also, related to chess (of course) but also no, at Chess Base today there is an interesting piece about aphantasia. HERE Aphantasia is the inability to picture things in their “mind’s eye”. This would related to chess because, at the higher levels, it requires a strong visual memory. Some players can visualize positions, even many boards. Think about this… if you have aphantasia, how do you calculate? Analyze a position? How can you play chess at all? How about all the other aspects of life… like… driving?
Anyway, I struggle to visualize past a certain number of moves. This is going to hold me back a little when I start getting serious.
It is worth your time.
This is also worth your time. I am presently visualizing you clicking the link and buying some beer, even if you don’t like beer, because a) you can give it to a worthy priest and b) you want to help these great Benedictines at Norcia.
Here’s Magnus playing 5 boards simultaneously while BLINDFOLDED and facing away from the boards. Note that he plays a different opening on each board.
First, posts are still arriving on Fr. Hunwicke’s blog, may he rest in peace. He scheduled them (probably). right now there are interesting notes about Rogation days. HERE
New Oxford Review… for me is behind a paywall. I would appreciate an assist, if you get my drift. There is a piece entitled musing about Benedict XVI as the katechon: Was Pope Benedict XVI Holding Back the Destroying Flood? HERE
Last night I watched Catholic Unscripted (I pay attention to them) on YouTube. They brought up the fact that a Chicago priest did a full blown wedding for lesbians. The question is, will Rome or Cupich do anything about it? My guess is NO. But the people who want the TLM must be crushed into the gravel and kicked to the side of the road. It stands to reason. On the sham wedding HERE. BTW… the video to which I refer has a funny moment. Recommended with oak leaf cluster. HERE
I would like to collaborate with Catholic Unscripted. They have their heads screwed on in the right direction.
As I prepared mentally to leave the land of the platonic form of Chinese food for climes in which Chinese is hardly even a flicker on the wall of the back of the cave, we determined to go that way instead of Greek.
Spicy cucumbers.
Sichuan noodles.
Scallion pancakes.
Xiao long bao. Very good. However, the spoon was too small.
Eggplant with minced pork and ginger.
Crispy spicy beef. We asked them to ratchet the heat down a little for one of our august company. Truly crispy!
Chicken braised in Chinese “wine” and basil.
A good meal was had by all.
Now… packing for the last couple of flights to close the circle.
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Even though I am quite busy, I will not deny you your daily challenge.
White to move and mate in 3.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Here is your Roman JASMINE REPORT! (No, not the Jesuit.)
Thanks to The World’s Best Sacristan™.
*sigh* I should’ve stayed a few more days.
Welcome registrants:
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White to move and win.
1.a6 Rh4 2.Rd8 Kxd8 a7 and wins. Not 2.Ra3?bxa3 3.a7 axb2 (Alekhine 1933) NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
In chessy news… the 2024 Grand Chess Tour will begin with the Superbet Rapid & Blitz, May 8-12 in Warsaw: 9 rounds of rapid and 18 rounds of blitz. Who will be there? World number one Magnus Carlsen and the next challenger for the world title, Dommaraju Gukesh. Last year Carlsen won by holding a draw in a 124-move slug fest against Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
Too many people today are without good, strong preaching, to the detriment of all. Share the good stuff.
Was there a GOOD point made in the sermon you heard at your Mass of obligation for the 5th Sunday Sunday after Easter? Novus Ordo – 6th Sunday of Easter.
Tell about attendance especially for the Traditional Latin Mass.
When we are given this image of the eye and of light, we should be immediately reminded of what the Church, and ancient philosophers before her, advised about custodia occulorum, custody of the eyes.
I will be blunt.
Purgamentum init, exit purgamentum. Garbage in, garbage out.
We should not look at things that are evil or which arouse passions. Our vision is perhaps the most powerful of all the senses for shaping our inward selves. It is a common trait of us fallen human beings that we tend to desire what we see. Remember the temptation of Eve by the serpent in the Garden at the Tree of Knowledge in Genesis 3: …
The adventure continued yesterday with a visit to the now defunct Huntington Seminary of the Immaculate Conception. This was the once mighty seminary of the once mighty Diocese of Brooklyn. It had hundreds of seminarians. Then it had tens. Then it had none and was closed. Back in the 50’s, the Diocese of Rockville Centre (pretty much the entirety of Long Island) was sliced off from Brooklyn. The result was that Brooklyn was all urban and poorer by the year. The money was in Long Island. Rockville Centre got the seminary (and the landed gentry), Brooklyn’s dead bishops in crypt were translated, and eventually things petered out.
I took lots of photos (new phone… difference?) but here are a few just to provide a taste of what seminaries were, back in the day.
Look at this deeply deeply silly altar. The main altar was as wide as you can easily envisage. But, no. They had to follow the chimera, the non-existent lie-based propo after the Council, and put something barely wide enough to hold the corporal and bookstand in the nave. If there were any environment in which it is would be important to stress the concept of a sanctuary, it would be a seminary. So, that’s where they did the stupid stuff.
A small bright spot in the sacristy.
The other day I mentioned prayers to be said commanded by the local bishop. Here is an example at the bottom of the chart with vesting prayers framed on a cabinet over the vestment case.
Who would like to offer a precise and yet smooth translation of the Latin at the bottom?
This oratio imperata reveals the deep culture of prayer for benefactors. This is way, dear readers, I always mention that I pray for and say Mass for the intention of those who send donations, either monthly or ad hoc and who send wishlist items and also notes about their prayers for me. I, too, at the Mementos of the living and of the dead in the Roman Canon remember my benefactors. It is a duty and pleasure.
The bishop’s chapel in the level below the main chapel, below which there is the crypt. The chapel is decidedly eschatological and very well done. The mosaic of the reigning Christ is raised above the broken symbols of episcopal office, such as the crozier, and the human bones are a memento mori. Moreover, this is directly above the crypt the the bishop’s dead predecessors are entombed!
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The one wing from the back of the sprawling place.
We headed over the the house where President Theodore Roosevelt died. Alas, it was closed.
Nice people! Great service!
Supper: We stopped at a local butcher in what seemed like a shabby bodega in a not so appealing area. Great butcher! Friendly and helpful. Happy to talk about the cut, fat content, etc. High quality meats. Always chat with the butcher. My experience is that even in grocery stores they are often the most helpful, in fact eager to. It makes their day a lot more pleasant and they are, in general, happy to cut something special for you. These guys had various steaks cut, but we asked for something thicker. Here is a shot with a dry rub I often use. It’s about 1 3/4″.
In the pan with clarified butter.
Simple greens and tomato and garlic vinaigrette. A good, sturdy Zin.
Speaking of altars, this is fun. Note the image over this altar. It is a riff on a theme.
If you were building a home chapel, and could pick any image to put above your altar, what image would you choose? pic.twitter.com/xLYO0teoZw
In chessy news, it looks like another chess movie may be coming out, this time based on the huge cheating controversy from the Sinquefield Cup a couple years ago. Magnus Carlson abruptly left the tournament levelling an accusation of cheating against the rather unlikeable Hans Neimann.
Frankly, I am amazed that more chess related movies and shows haven’t been produced lately, given the huge and growing popularity of chess around the world.
Also, The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has invited private bids for the 2024 World Championship. Get this: Minimum total budget $8,500,000, minimum total prize fund $2,500,000, FIDE fee $1,100,000. I dunno. Chess is growing. One of these days large sponsors will get involved, as they have in other sports.
Black to move and mate in 4.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Chrissue Lulu Helengrace3712
Sjsprunger
Reddog
Nancy F.
Liz1952
Nipper
I was out with priest friends in deepest Queens last night for Chinese food, which is plentifully lacking in Rome. Good Chinese that is. We had a little group that would meet at a place where, after they got to know us and with a little encouragement and forewarning, would give us the real thing rather than what is usually served in Italy. Anyway, no problem with that in Queens.
First things first. Xiao long bao aka Shanghai soup dumplings.
I used to go to a place, often, not too far from LGA, called Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao. The logo was great. They had about the best XLB I’ve ever had. Then COVID Theatre struck and they turned over, redecorated in the most appalling taste, added deeply stupid items like chocolate XLB and ruined the menu while providing mediocre food with a hint of undeserved pretention. I mourn the loss of the old place.
Really spicy hot cumin lamb. Not as good as China Cafe on 37th, but satisfying. I did feel a bit for my dining companions. Until the capsicum did its thing, they endured with a measure of surprise.
Eggplant with garlic sauce was a hit. It had some sweetness. I suspect the addition of a little honey.
Singapore noodles. I was underwhelmed. This needed more “goodies” in it.
Twice cooked pork. On the salty side, but a true and pleasing contrast to the sweetness of the eggplant.
You can see an edge of the chicken with vegetables.
Nice people! Great service!
A nice supper with great conversation. It was nice to have a change of palate.
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I have to brag a little. I had an online game against one of the chess.com 2000 rated bots. This is what happened.
Pippo the Florist. If you visit Rome, and you go the Campo de’ Fiori during the day, stop at Pippo’s get some flowers for your hotel room, and say “Hi!” from “don John”.
Hey! s*****41@nc.rr.com My thank you note got kicked back as undeliverable. New email?
Meanwhile, white to move and mate in 2. Honestly, how long did it take for you to solve this (if you did)? It took me a couple minutes get it down to 2. I got three pretty fast, but that’s not the puzzle!
#2 1. Bb6 axb6 2. Qa8#
Nice people! Great service!
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Interested in learning? Try THIS. In fact, I had an email that one of you readers did, in fact, try something from Remote Chess Academy. Thanks for using my link. This fellow is a good teacher. He has helped my game in several ways.
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In chessy news… in Malmo, in a tournament I am not following, there are several players and some of them are winning and some of them are drawing and some of them are losing. That’s about it. However, there is an article at chess.com today about openings with black for beginners that some of you might want to check out. HERE
I am now also a chess.com affiliate. Sign up! Maybe we can get something going. I’m especially interested in priestly chess players.
Now that I am back in these USA – where the next summer of stupid seems to be warming up, I can at least share something of the non-Italian fare I’ve happily engaged since disembarking.
Firstly, whereas there was practically nobody in lines at FCO in Rome, there were vast throngs in the lines at JFK for passports, etc. Since indicated waits of over an hour. Happily I was able to into a different line and go through rapidly. Whew.
Then, an old return- Stateside custom was observed. Cheeseburger. Yup.
Meanwhile, in Rome, the sun rose at 06:02 and set at 20:13.
The Ave Maria Bell would have run, if it were rung, at 20:30.
It was the Feast of St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor (+373).
There is an interesting piece – interesting because it was in the first place written and published – from the AP about the shift among younger Catholics to “conservative” and even – gasp – traditional ways. HERE
‘A step back in time’: America’s Catholic Church sees an immense shift toward the old ways
The title doesn’t capture the reality. The shift toward “the old ways” is really a step forward into the future.
Much of the article seeks to fill in the background for readers not so well informed. The meat of it, however, is going to irritate quite a few of those who hold the positions of power in the US Church and perhaps also in Rome.
The fact is, and this article points to this reality, that there is a vast demographic sink hole opening up under the Church. I’ve written and warned about this for many years now. In the end, there was be a few strong identity groups left active in the Church. They will, of necessity and survival for institutions, find each other and integrate. While there will be some frictions to work out, I believe the result could be amazing.
It will be amazing, in fact. This is precisely why some who hold power in the Church are desperately trying to stomp the life out of one of these strong identity groups: those who adhere to the Church’s Tradition. In fact, it is this group that will provide the solid foundation for everything that will survive the inexorable slide into the sink hole and the collapse of many Church entities. What I have, in the past, called “The Biological Solution”, that is, the ever-ticking clock, is changing the landscape around the and within the sinkhole. The article points this out with a couple of quotes, including one from a priest of my native place who used to address us in seminary: “They say they’re trying to restore what us old guys ruined.”
And they sure did. The ruin they brought about was devastating. But emergence from the ruin is not only possible, it is happening. Think of the redecoration (at quite an expense) of wrekovated churches (which our forebears paid for with sweat and money) just to implement a modernist agenda woven from systematic lying and brutal clericalist oppression.
There are signs of life, indeed. But there is still oppression. It’ll take awhile longer, but “Change is gonna come”, as Sam Cooke once sang.
I invite you to read the article and comment on it.
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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
B on Some Vatican news notes: “It occurred to me today that this is a preemptive move. Then when they push for women’s ordination or other…”
Kathleen10 on Some not Vatican news notes: “It’s such a beautiful thing, that we witness how God writes straight with crooked lines. Only because of the din…”
frdanbecker on Daily Rome Shot 1024: “Kc8 Kxd5 Rc5 mate If black does anything else, then Rd7 mate”
AA Cunningham on Some Vatican news notes: “No doubt these latest examples of the Pontiff’s charity will soon be posted to: The Pope Francis Little Bumper Book…”
Robert on Some not Vatican news notes: “There is also a picture of their Prioress presiding on Good Friday in a stole: https://www.mountosb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DSC_0523-scaled.jpg Perhaps the good Archbishop…”
robtbrown on Some not Vatican news notes: “The photo above should read: The Sisters of St Scholastica in the diaspora* *their own monastery”
Sandy on Some Vatican news notes: “An interview on “60 Minutes”, what could possibly go wrong?! I am personally disgusted by this and afraid to watch.”
Matthew111 on Daily Rome Shot 1023: “The black bishop taking white’s knight would check white’s king, so it’s not mate in two. Looking at this again…”
maternalView on Some Vatican news notes: “It seems to me to be one step away from casting doubt on the whole concept of apparitions especially Marian…”
summorumpontificum777 on Some not Vatican news notes: “I think it’s pundit Michael Knowles who often says that the Catholic Church is currently the only institution in the…”
TheCavalierHatherly on Census Fidelium…. Sensus Fidelium… A book: ““I know a sector of the Church which is vital, young and committed. Hey! Let’s persecute them!” Given the historical…”
poohbear on Some Vatican news notes: “Francis seems to fit his own definition of conservative, as he doesn’t want to see beyond his own opinions.”
ABORTION PILL RESCUE NETWORK
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
St. John Eudes
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
“Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops.”
“The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.”
- C.S. Lewis
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As for Latin…
"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
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Anita Moore, O.P.(lay) on CHARTRES, FRANCE – PENTECOST PILGRIMAGE – Live and on demand VIDEO: “I wish I were in the kind of physical shape you have to be in to do one of these…”
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